Pedestrian Brige

This studio was a collaborative process between the architecture and structural engineering departments. Since the completion of the new college of engineering there has been a need to better connect it with the old college. The department’s solution was to install a pedestrian bridge spanning 76 ft. from the second level of the old college to the second level of the new one. Another condition the department called for was since the space existing between the colleges was essentially a dead one they wanted to rejuvenate the space by implementing a socially interactive bridge. The competition rules stated there must be a 20’-0” wide by 14’-6” tall gap in the bridge to allow adequate fire access, it must be constructed primarily out of wood, & it must comply with current ADA requirements. The idea for this project is that the structure is both the support and a morphological element for which one can interact with via its transformation from a sculptural structure to a piece of urban furniture. The goal was to keep the primary vertical and horizontal members as thin as possible giving the bridge two uniquely different elevations either transparent or opaque.